Spring Hiking in the Texas Heat

I'm extremely new to hiking, like today was my second time out. It was also much hotter out today. The other day it was maybe 78 degrees. Today it was 94. I wore my big floppy hat since I have short hair and didn't want my scalp and neck to burn. I have new hiking boots on the way more suited to warm weather. The new ones are leather and canvas so they are more breathable. My current boots are all leather and thick so they get pretty hot.

I used my pedometer app to track our steps and things and despite the heat, we made really good progress. We did see some cool birds, Includint this American White Ibis.

And I didn't know what it was. I had to use Google Lense to look it up. Its pretty cool Shortly after I took that another one flew over head and joined him. They are pretty big with a wide wing span. I also saw this nest.

I don't know what its for, we think maybe for a hawk or vulture. We see a lot of those in the area. Its pretty big as this was taken from a long ways away.

I have to say the hike itself, the pace was pretty good, we didn't have to stop as often for breaks. Though I did get winded going up one steep hill. We saw some people on the bicycles you can rent and while that may be fun to a degree, I'm not sure I'd want to ride a bike on these trails. Part of the fun is stopping and seeing the birds and plants. One couple zipped by us so fast on the bikes we barely saw them. Like people can do what they want, clearly. But I don't think I'd enjoy just zipping through the trail so fast I couldn't see or enjoy anything.

I look forward to my new boots. Those are Merrell Moab 3 Vistas.

The color wasn't my first choice, but thats all they had in my side. I'm more concerned about function. Oddly I used to wear Crocs everywhere for years. They were super comfortable, but when I had to do a lot of walking, I noticed my knees and back would be killing me as well as my feet. Turns out they don't have much support. They are soft and cushiony, but not great for long treks. While I'm still in terrible shape, I'm impressed with today's results of the walk.

These numbers are double what our last hike was. Last time I think we walked for 15 minutes and didn't even reach half a mile. We were very tired after, but its progress. I've lost 50 pounds since I started wegovy last summer. While my actual weight has been stuck at about 300 for a while now, I'm much more mobile and active than I was months ago and doing more activities and I'm enjoying hiking and want to do more of it this summer. My wife goes with me now, but its really hard on her due to her back. So hopefully she can continue this with me.

I want to try different trails as we go and spots in town. I love how this city is a huge city of 2 million people but right in the middle are these little nature preserves with hiking trails. I don't see myself doing any rugged hiking/climbing excursions anytime soon but this is fun for now.

My diet still leaves a lot to be desired, I ate a burger and fries for dinner which I try not to do since being on Wegovy, but I found exercising even on the medication makes me about 5 times hungrier than usual. So I'll just listen to my body and see how it all goes. But I'm enjoying this so far now that its nice out. Just not sure about when the heat kicks in this summer, but I may have to do morning hikes.

In the meantime, that's my current adventure. I'm sure I'll have more this weekend. Thank you all for stopping in. Feel free to comment with your hiking adventures if you have any or anything you'd like to share.